Green Bay's ordinance regulating where sex offenders can live did not apply to Donald Buzanowski because of how his conviction was classified. / Submitted photo

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Green Bay aldermen are acting to close a loophole that has allowed a convicted sex offender to live in an east-side apartment building over the city’s objections.

A City Council committee voted Monday to recommend adjusting Green Bay’s five-year-old ordinance aimed at controlling where sex offenders can live.

The issue came to light after officials discovered that Donald Buzanowski, a former Catholic priest who molested a young boy, was living in an apartment building at 2258 Imperial Lane, despite the city’s attempts at prohibiting him from living there. It turned out the city’s ordinance did not apply to Buzanowski because of how his conviction was classified.

Alderman Tom DeWane, president of the City Council, told members of the council’s Protection & Welfare Committee on Monday that as many as three other offenders might have similarly slipped through the cracks.

“They’re beating the system,” DeWane said.

The committee action expanding the ordinance so it covers convictions like Buzanowski’s now goes before the full council for final consideration.

Alderman Jesse Brunette, a member of the Protection & Welfare Committee, said that finding loopholes in laws is not unusual, and he remains confident that the city’s sex offender residency restrictions are working reasonably well.

Referring to sex offenders, Brunette said, “People living in the city shouldn’t be allowed an exemption because of some obscure state law.”

Assistant City Attorney Jim Mueller said officials have not yet determined if the committee action can be applied retroactively so Buzanowski will have to relocate from his Imperial Lane apartment — or at least get city approval to stay there.

Green Bay ordinance prohibits convicted sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools, parks and other places where children gather. That covers virtually the entire city. To live in any restricted area, offenders must first get permission from a city board.

Buzanowski, 69, was a Catholic priest in Green Bay during the late 1980s when he sexually assaulted a fifth-grade boy at a Catholic school. Convicted in 2005, he served seven years in prison and was released earlier this year.

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The city’s Sex Offender Residence Board in June rejected his request to live at 2258 Imperial Lane, located about one block from a public park with playground equipment. Board members later were stunned to discover that he had moved to the apartment building anyway.

Buzanowski’s state probation agent, Erin Murto, notified the city that her client intended to live at the Imperial Lane location because his conviction was classified under an outdated state law not mentioned in the city’s ordinance.

Murto is the same probation agent who last year acknowledged that another sex offender client was living in Green Bay without city approval because of the bureaucracy involved in getting approved. That angered city aldermen and prompted them to consider abandoning the city’s ordinance. But after months of debate, the ordinance remained largely unchanged.

Alderman Mark Steuer, chairman of the Protection & Welfare Committee, was an outspoken advocate for rescinding the law, arguing that it was ineffective and ill-conceived.

Steuer said Monday that agreeing to close the new loophole does not mean he now favors the ordinance. He called the situation involving Buzanowski cause for significant concern.

“We have to work with what’s there,” he said of the ordinance. “It’s still a work in progress.”